RhoC GTPase Is a Potent Regulator of Glutamine Metabolism and N-Acetylaspartate Production in Inflammatory Breast Cancer Cells*

Inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) is an extremely lethal cancer that rapidly metastasizes. Although the molecular attributes of IBC have been described, little is known about the underlying metabolic features of the disease. Using a variety of metabolic assays, including 13C tracer experiments, we found that SUM149 cells, the primary in vitro model of IBC, exhibit metabolic abnormalities that distinguish them from other breast cancer cells, including elevated levels of N-acetylaspartate, a metabolite primarily associated with neuronal disorders and gliomas. Here we provide the first evidence of N-acetylaspartate in breast cancer. We also report that the oncogene RhoC, a driver of metastatic potential, modulates glutamine and N-acetylaspartate metabolism in IBC cells in vitro, revealing a novel role for RhoC as a regulator of tumor cell metabolism that extends beyond its well known role in cytoskeletal rearrangement.

• Publication year

  2016

• Venue

  Journal of Biological Chemistry

• Publication date

  2016-04-25

• Fields of study

  Biology, Medicine

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1074/jbc.M115.703959PMID 27129239PMCID PMC4919454
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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